Musicians - Charles Koechlin

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	Musicians - Charles Koechlin

Charles Louis Eugène Koechlin (November 27 1867–December 31 1950) was a French composer and teacher.

He was born in Paris and initially considered a career in the military. After an illness he settled on music in 1889, studying at the Paris Conservatoire under Jules Massenet, Gabriel Fauré, and André Gédalge (1856–1926).

His compositions include the four symphonic poems and three orchestral songs making up Livre de la jungle after Rudyard Kipling; many other symphonic poems including Le Buisson Ardent after Romain Rolland (this is a diptych of two orchestral poems, performable separately) and Le Docteur Fabricius after a novel by Charles Dolfuss; three string quartets; five symphonies including a Seven Stars Symphony inspired by Hollywood; sonatas for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola and cello, and much other chamber music; many songs, over two hundred published opus numbers in all; and a vast number of monodies, fugal studies and other educational pieces. He wrote in several styles, sometimes severe Baroque counterpoint, as in the fugue that opens his second symphony (unrecorded as of 2005), sometimes "impressionistically" as in the tone poem Au Loin, or, as in the second symphony's scherzo, yet more astringently. He was fascinated by the movies and wrote many 'imaginary' film scores and works dedicated to the Hollywood actress Lillian Harvey, on whom he had a crush. He also composed an Epitaph for Jean Harlow
.

Koechlin wrote a compendious textbook on the subject of orchestration. He was interested in using unusual instruments, notably the saxophone and the early electronic instrument the Ondes Martenot. One movement of the Second Symphony requires four of them (and is not usually included in performances of the work, for that reason). He orchestrated the popular suite Pelléas et Melisande by Fauré and also orchestrated the bulk of Claude Debussy's legende dansée Khamma under the composer's direction, from the piano score.

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